Giorre's PORTRAIT OF DANTE.
A scattered disputation has been going on in literary and artistic circles respecting the discovery of a portrait of Dante by his friend Giotto. In Florence there is a prison called the Bergen° ; it had a chapel, since added to the prison ; according to the description of V asari, in that chapel was a picture of Dante by Giotto, but the chapel had been altered and the walls were covered with whitewash. A zealous artist determined upon the work of treasure-trove, and actually refound the lost picture. It has since been mutilated and adulterated ; but by good fortune a fac-simile of the damaged picture, as it appeared before the adulteration, exists. The credit of this not fortuitous discovery was rightfully ascribed to Mr. Kirkup, an English artist resident at Florence : it has been claimed by a Signor Bezzi, an Italian resident in England ; and a copy of the portrait in its mutilated form has been exhibited in London with the avowed pur-
pose of engraving. This portrait bore the following inscription- ' Portrait of Dante Alighier4 painted by Giotto in 1300, in the chapel of the Prretorium at Florence. This monument, spoiled by the prisons con- structed and by various layers of white which had taken it from the eyes of the worshipers of patriotic things, was reestablished on the 21st of June in 1840, by the labour of a meritorious society, of which the promoter was Sig- nor Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi.
"Praise to the good Italian, whose sojourn in ultramontane countries has not taken away the love of his own. "The painter Marini was charged with this work."
The student of Italian records will easily recognize the free and easy style of these complimentary exereitations. The value of the record is somewhat explained away by the following letter from Mr. Kirkup to Signor Cavaloasella, an Italian friend in London. For the perfect can- dour and honourable feeling of the writer we can vouch.
"My dear Sir—Signor de Tivoli has communicated to me your letter, and I agree with you in the matter of Signor Bezzi. These are the facts. I told him at my house of the existence of that portrait, and he voluntarily united }himself with me for the necessary expenses and steps to rediscover it. He had not heard of the existence of that portrait, as he then confessed. The day after he came to propose the junction of another person of my acquaint- awe for this object. This was Mr. Wilde, an American, whom I accepted with pleasure as our associate in the affair. Having found the restorator most acceptable to the Government, a compact was made with him, Signor Marini, to pay him 240 franceschini whether the picture were found or not under the whitewash.
" Bezzi, as an Italian and advocate, undertook to write the necessary peti- tions ; and in this part he did more Asa we others did. Permission obtained, we were nevertheless forbidden Ito enter into the matter] many times with various pretexts ; and we, believing that the reason was our quality of fo- reigners, prayed two Florentine friends to lend their name, securing them against any sacrifice, all the expenses remaining at our charge. This suc- ceeded, and we begun the work. I remember that the first time that I pas- sed to the Begat° to see it, I found Marini on a scaffold, the two beams of which were rested in two large holes made in the wall as large as his head. If Dante had been under that part it would have been all finished. I scolded him, and the platforms afterwards in other parts were unattached and with- out danger. Bezzi after this proposed to introduce other associates ; and as it was a lightening of the expenses, that is 80 for each of us three, I was only too contented. I do not know how many were introduced by Bezzi ; but a few days afterwards there came a new prohibition, and the room was closed. Government, believing that the search interested the nation, took it upon itself, on our own conditions with Marini. Nevertheless nothing was done ; and here Bezzi made a new petition, either that the thing should be done or that we should be allowed to do it. Marini was then permitted to return to the work on account of Government, and at that point Bezzi rem turned to England. It was some months afterwards that I heard that Ma- rini had found certain figures, and soon afterwards the discovery of Dante himself. I went among the first to see it. What a pity ! the eye of the beautiful profile was wanting. There was a hole an inch deep or an inch and a half. Marini said it was a nail. It did precisely seem the damage of a nail drawn out; and so I suspect it was done instead of cutting off the nail. But I have no proofs of that. This hole remained for a year, notwithstand- ing that I prayed that it might be filled up, because all who mounted upon the scaffold put their fingers into it, and 'I feared it would crumble more, Afterwards it was restored on the occasion of the congress of scientific philo- sophers, and I saw Marini under the direction of the Minister of Public- Works who was by his side. He filled the hole, and made a new eye, too little and ill-designed, and then he retouched the whole face and clothes, to the great damage of the expression and character. As usual, the likeness of the face, and the three colours in which Dante was dressed, the same with those of Beatrice, those of young Italy, white, green, and red, stand no more ; the green is turned to chocolate colour ; moreover the form of the cap is lost and confounded.
"I desired to make a drawing to send it to my best Mend Signor— it was denied to me by the keepers, and I went to the gallery to speak to one of the inspectors to have permission. lie answered me, that too many per- sons were jealous, and that it was not decided to whom it would be permitted to publish it. I asked no more. Perhaps if I had asked of a minister or director I should have been more fortunate, as they had on more than one occasion shown me politeness. But I obtained the means to be shut up in the prison fora morning; and not only did I make a drawing, but a treeing also, and with the two I then made a fec-simile sufficiently carefuL Luckily it was before the rifacimento. I have sent one to—. Returning to Signor Bezzi hearing of the success from my two friends, men of letters, he made an an- nouncement of his triumph, without even so much as mentioning my name. He had said adieu to me at Florence with his usual affectation of coidiality, where he shook hands as though he would have dislocated my shoulder and I was surprised at so barefaced an egotism without motive for resentment. I had never published a single boast on this subject. Some friends of mine have answered him without having known it. Somebody had paid him with his own money,—attributing all to me without naming him. fled published nothing : the truth is sufficiently known, and I do not want to lose my time with a mere charlatan. There are some in all nations; and at this moment I wish to be silent in all that may act against the Italians, too unfortunate and betrayed both within and without. "The truth is, that Bezzi undertook all the labours of the petitions. We should not have done it so much in rule; but without him we might have employed an Italian to do it. There are advocates enough in Florence pos- sessing the abilities of Signor Bezzi ; nevertheless I accorded to him the whole merit of that labour, although it was fruitless. After the prayer had been more than once accorded, they had been forbidden; but that, I believe,
was not his fault" •
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